April 3, 2012.

First things first.  We did successfully cross back to the states.  So I'll get caught up and post the bolgs that I've written.  As far as this post goes we're still in the Bahamas.....

I'm fallin' apart. About 3 weeks ago I was tightening the propeller stuffing box when I mashed my pinky. We have a vee-drive so the stuffing box is near impossible to get to. It was tight as hell so after a liberal dose of PB Blaster I put my wrench in place and really put my shoulder to it. The wrench promptly slipped off and I landed a very nice punch on the transmission. I didn't twist it or bend it, I smashed it. I splinted it for a week and then spent a few more days with it taped to my ring finger. Its still sore as hell but I can almost make a fist so its getting better. Its a good thing too because furling the genoa and raising the dink is a test of pain tolerance.

When we deploy the anchor I have to pay the chain out by hand. Its not a problem and I actually prefer it as I think a “hands on” approach to anchoring isn't a bad thing. Unless of course you have a broken pinky and have to drop the hook with only one hand. About a week ago while dropping the hook I scraped the back of my other hand on something sharp. I'm not even sure what it was but I started seeing blood all over the deck while we were anchoring. I looked at my other hand and I had pretty much scalped the knuckle of my pointer finger. I had a dime sized, thick flap of skin dangling from my knuckle. I flapped it back into place and taped it down as best I could. It looks like the flap is going to reattach but not a day goes by without me whacking it on something and starting the blood flowing anew.

And then I got the frigging flu or some damn thing. Friends took us to lunch in Green Turtle Cay and as soon as I climbed up onto the dock my finger started pumping blood and I felt “something” coming on. Crap, I'm falling apart.

So what better time to cross the Gulfstream and head back to the states. There’s a tiny window of opportunity. A big factor is the weekends weather forecast for the area is looking pretty grim. We checked Passage Weather, Ugribs, Windfinder, Weather Underground along with listening to Chris Parker.

The consensus for this opportunity was for 10 to 14 from the south south west followed by 14 to 17 from the southwest in the Gulfstream. A small wind chop on the banks with 2 to 4 footers in the stream. I would like a longer window but this one predicted favorable conditions for the 200 mile jump to Cape Canaveral. We have to be in Canaveral before sunset on Thursday because the weather world is going to shit then. We'd prefer a longer window to take greater advantage of the stream but we'll take this so at least we can progress up the ditch if the weather is questionable.